Jeremiah Chapter 3

From The Open Bible Project

3:1 "They say, 'If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again?' Wouldn't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me," says Yahweh.

• (a) According as it is written, (Deuteronomy 24:4).
• (b) If he take such a one to wife again.
• (c) That is, with idols, and with them whom you have put your confidence in.
• (d) And I will not cast you off, but receive you, according to my mercy.

3:2 "Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

• (e) Who dwells in tent and waits for them that pass by to rob them.

3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

• (f) As God threatened by his law, (Deuteronomy 28:24).
• (g) You would never be ashamed of your acts and repent: and this impudency is common to idolaters, who will not cease, though they are openly convicted.

3:4 Will you not from this time cry to me, 'My Father, you are the guide of my youth?'

• (h) He shows that the wicked in their miseries will cry to God and use outward prayer as the godly do, but because they do not turn from their evil, they are not heard, (Isaiah 58:3,4).

3:5 "'Will he retain [his anger] forever? Will he keep it to the end?' Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way."

3:6 Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, "Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the prostitute.

• (i) Meaning the ten tribes.

3:7 I said after she had done all these things, 'She will return to me;' but she didn't return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

3:8 I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn't fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.

• (k) And gave her into the hands of the Assyrians.

3:9 It happened through the lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

• (l) The Hebrew word may either signify lightness and wantonness, or noise and brute.

3:10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense," says Yahweh.

• (m) Judah pretended for a time that she returned, as under Josiah and other good kings, but she was never truly touched, or wholly reformed, as appeared when opportunity was offered by any wicked prince.

3:11 Yahweh said to me, "Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

• (n) Israel has not declared herself as wicked as Judah, who yet has had more admonitions and examples to call her to repentance.

3:12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, you backsliding Israel,' says Yahweh; 'I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,' says Yahweh. 'I will not keep [anger] forever.

• (o) While the Israelites were now kept in captivity by the Assyrians, to whom he promises mercy, if they will repent.

3:13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,' says Yahweh."

• (p) There was no way which you did not hunt to seek after the idols, and to go on a pilgrimage.

3:14 "Return, backsliding children," says Yahweh; "for I am a husband to you. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

3:15 I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

3:16 It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days," says Yahweh, "they shall say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of Yahweh!' neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.

• (q) This is to be understood of the coming of Christ: for then they will not seek the Lord by ceremonies, and all figures will cease.

3:17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem 'The throne of Yahweh;' and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem. Neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

• (r) Meaning, the Church, where the Lord will be present to the world’s end, (Matthew 28:20).

3:18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

• (s) Where they are now in captivity.

3:19 "But I said, 'How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!' and I said, 'You shall call me "My Father," and shall not turn away from following me.'

3:20 "Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," says Yahweh.

• (t) The Hebrew word signifies a friend or companion, and here may be taken for a husband, as it is used also in (Hosea 3:1).

3:21 A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and] the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.

• (u) Signifying, that God, whom they had forsaken, would bring their enemies to them, who would lead them captive, and make them to cry and lament.

3:22 Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding. "Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.

• (x) This is spoken in the person of Israel to the shame of Judah, who stayed so long to turn to God.

3:23 Truly in vain is [the help that is looked for] from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God.

3:24 But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

• (y) For their idolatry God’s vengeance has light on them and theirs.

3:25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God."

• (z) They justify not themselves, or say that they would follow their fathers, but condemn their wicked doings and desire forgiveness for the same, as in (Ezra 9:7; Psalms 106:6; Isaiah 64:6).